North Hunterdon softball team falls in HWS tourney final

RARITAN TWP. — Coming through with its only four hits of the game in the final inning Saturday night, the Pope John High softball team scored twice to earn a 2-0 victory over North Hunterdon in the championship battle of the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex County Tournament at Diamond Nation.

Junior righthander Mason Spichiger had a perfect game going for North Hunterdon (18-9) until the top of the seventh, when the Sparta school used a bunt single, an infield hit and a single to shallow center field to load the bases with one out before Christina Marinaro bounced a single through the middle to send in the game’s only two runs.

“Mason was absolutely outstanding,” said NHHS Head Coach Jeff Steele, whose Lions lost last year’s title game to High Point 1-0 with Spichiger also in the circle. “They had maybe one or two hard-hit balls against her the whole game. She was phenomenal. She threw good enough to win. It wasn’t our pitching, and it wasn’t our defense — we just didn’t score.”

Mary Adams, the junior starter for Pope John (20-9), was up to the challenge while pitching her squad to its first HWS tourney crown. She yielded five hits, including four in the last two innings, and didn’t notch a single strikeout. North Hunterdon had runners at second and third with one out in the sixth but a pair of infield pop-ups ended the threat.

“Mary’s a tough competitor who doesn’t get frazzled when people get on base,” said Pope John Head Coach Frank Canning. “That’s the name of the game. She doesn’t get upset when people get on base and we do have the defense to back her up.”

A line-drive single to center by NHHS’s Kayla Parker with two out in the fourth was the game’s first hit and there were no more base-runners until North threatened two innings later.

Lauren Martino led off the sixth with a single and moved to second on Caitlin Inamoto’s sacrifice bunt. Carly Severini then drilled a shot down the left-field line for a single to put runners at the corners and two pitches later Severini stole second base uncontested. Taylor Knoble then popped out to the first baseman and shortstop Kaylee Powers gloved Parker’s pop-up to end the inning.

Alyssa Bolger’s bunt single with one out in the seventh ignited Pope John’s deciding rally. Powers then beat out a slow bouncer to shortstop Severini for a hit and Toni Santonastasso dropped a single into shallow center, loading the bases. Marinaro then connected for her deciding hit.

Spichiger led off NHHS’s seventh with a single but Adams then snagged Kristen Cheesman’s liner and doubled courtesy runner Hailey Kirsch off first. Isabella Many singled but Martino lined out to third, ending the game.

“We couldn’t catch a break,” said Steele. “Cheesman hits the ball square right on the nose — you couldn’t hit it any harder — and the kid comes up with the catch and it’s bang-bang. The runner is a step off the bag and there’s nothing she can do. You can’t fault the runner.

“It’s another break they got and we didn’t, but the teams that get the breaks in these games are the teams that win.”